


A Lyre and a Player Too

by quantumoddity



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Free Verse, Hadestown AU, Inspired by Orpheus and Eurydice (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), M/M, Marriage Proposal, Widomauk Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 18:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19115245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity
Summary: For the Free Day, I wrote a little more prosey piece for a Hadestown AU, Hadestown being a musical interpreting the myth of Orpheus (Mollymauk) and Eurydice (Caleb). Go listen to it if you haven’t, its awesomeThe song is Come Home With Me from the musical





	A Lyre and a Player Too

_ “Who are you?” _

_ “The man whose going to marry you.” _

 

Of course Caleb had heard of the young tiefling with the lyre. The one with the ruby eyes and the iron horns and the honeyed tongue. He’d just never expected to find him here. 

He’d come to the meadow after work to sit and enjoy a little of sun. After all, there wouldn’t be much of it left. Autumn was approaching quickly with winter just at its heels, a winter that promised to be harsh and long and bitter. Now was the time to go and sit among the wildflowers and breathe their scent and touch their feather soft petals, before it was too late. 

That had always been Caleb’s way of doing things. Plan, prepare, expect the worst and be ready for it. Enjoy things at the appropriate time because nothing good would ever be around for long. 

But here was Mollymauk Tealeaf with his smile that crinkled the edges of his eyes and his fingers dancing across the strings of his lyre, not picking out a song as such but a gentle, lilting refrain that repeated over and over like water rushing across stones. He was dressed in clothes that were clearly never meant to stand up to hard wear and work. It was all linen and velvet, richly embroidered with a hundred patterns like a map of the summer stars. Sea glass hung from his horns, jewellery he’d cleary made himself. His dark purple skin drank the sun, highlighting the rich inks he’d imbued it with. As if he wasn’t already colourful enough. 

Sitting there in amongst the wildflowers, all Caleb could see was yet another beautiful thing that wouldn’t last the winter. 

 

_ “I’m Orpheus. Come home with me!” _

_ “Who am I?” _

_ “Eurydice.” _

 

It was when Mollymauk sang that his impossible dreams didn’t seem so impossible after all. The more Caleb heard him sing, the more he wanted to believe that the things he said could actually be true. 

“You don’t want to marry me,” he sighed softly, not for the first time. The words were getting weaker though.

“You know I do,” Molly cupped his cheek with a gentle hand. His hands were rough from years of wrestling songs from his strings but they were oh so gentle, “I know my own heart, Widogast. And I know yours.” 

Caleb rested back on his elbows, looking up at the darkening sky. He was still getting used to the idea of having a heart, let alone listening to it, knowing it as a part of himself. 

“Winter’s coming,” he heard the part of him still full of doubt repeat, “We have so little. I just don’t know how to make it work.” 

“The world won’t stay this cold and hard, my love,” Molly soothed, hand tracing down his neck now, fingertips running along the line of his shirt, “Look at today! Are we hungry today? Are we cold? Are we lost?”

“No…” Caleb had to admit and it was true. The evening sun was like a balm on his skin, warm and buttery and soft. The birds were trilling in the trees, even as the leaves began to lose their grip. The clouds wandered a slow and lazy path across the sky. And the marks of Mollymauk’s kisses were still blooming on his skin, the ache was still in his thighs from their loving. 

“If we were together, every day would be like this,” he murmured, still stroking his collarbone, “I’d make sure of it.” 

Caleb opened his mouth but the doubts didn’t come. His world had been cold and colourless until Mollymauk had come along. It was only with him by his side that things had begun to seem beautiful again. 

Maybe he could do it for the rest of their lives. Maybe it was time to try. 

 

_ “You see the world?” _

_ “Of course I do.” _

_ “I’ll make it beautiful for you. For you I’ll change the way it is.”  _

 

He loved seeing Mollymauk’s expression as it sank in. His eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open a little, revealing the points of his teeth. 

“Yes? Did you say yes?”

“I did,” Caleb couldn’t help but grin, “I will marry you.” 

Molly gave a breathless, delighted laugh, seizing Caleb’s hands and twirling them around and around, whooping and cheering. Caleb shrieked with surprise though by the time they lost their footing and tumbled down into the yellowing summer grass, he was giggling helplessly. 

Then Mollymauk’s lips were on his own and his hands were in his hair, just the way he liked. In between kisses, in a rushed whisper, he gasped out his promises, his promise to take care of them, to change the world for him, to make every single day summer. And Caleb drank it all like wine, until he was drunk, until he was dizzy and blissfully happy.

But around them the grass was turning yellow and the days were growing short. Song couldn’t keep the seasons from turning.

But whatever else happened, Caleb would always remember the day he’d said yes. And he would remember it being so beautiful. 

 

_ “So why should I become your wife?” _

_ “Because I make you feel alive.” _

_ “That’s worth a lot… _

_...what else you got?” _

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on Tumblr, @mollymauk-tealeaf. Comments mean everything, please consider leaving one if you have the time and thank you for reading!


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